Donald Trump is the right leader for a rapidly changing world

Every single day, I’m more optimistic about President Donald Trump. I strongly believe he is going to be the right American leader for the massive, and definitely dangerous, changes that are taking place in the world today.

One of the best analyses and predictions I’ve seen about a Donald Trump presidency in a brave, scary new world, comes from Joel Ross, a Democrat who deeply dislikes Trump. Because this great, possibly prescient rant, seems to be from an email that’s making the rounds, rather than from a post (I can’t find the post), I’m reprinting it in its entirety here.

I think you’ll find the rant as fascinating as I did because it takes a clear-eyed look at Europe and the Middle East and it acknowledges that the same traits that can make Trump a mean SOB in the business world also make him the best guy to represent American interests in a dangerous, fluid world:

Being a NY real estate guy, I have always known Trump is a terrible person. My former partner who at one time was worldwide head of real estate at Citibank, hated him. She and he had bitter battles when he was bankrupt and she was seizing assets. I know other bankers, lawyers and contractors who have had dealings with him, and nobody had good things to say. However, now he is president and we need as a nation to be fully supportive or the world will come apart. As I feared the press is already on the attack with their usual rhetoric. CNN today was its usual self – attacking him and having Chris Cuomo and Amanpor make stupid statements, still blaming the Russians. MSNBC actually had Al Sharpton on as a commentator. Shows you how out of touch the media is. Kelly Ann told Cuomo to stop the negativity and he went on to try to claim “it is not us, it was the campaigns”. The press just does not get it. The NY Times was a loser for the last several years, and it will continue to decline at a faster pace. CNN has lost the battle to Fox and will likely have to change out the commentators who are now completely discredited. Many years ago Connie Chung made a luncheon speech I was at, and she said the press had devolved into a bunch of lazy unprofessional kids who just rush out a story without bothering to check veracity. She decried how the press had become rumor mongers and unprofessional. They sure have. They will probably not change much until they realize the world has moved on to social media and the press has minimal credibility now.

If you have been reading The Rant for a long time you know I have been saying the world is changed and very high risk, and the black swans are circling. We just entered a major inflection point in history. I have been reporting that in Europe the right wing is ascendant. LePen is likely to win the French election next year. The EU is going to come apart once that happens and now with Trump in power that trend will accelerate. The EU will realign into blocs and there will be massive turmoil as things sort out over the next several years. The French will go back to the Franc. Germany will shift right as the refugees create social, crime and fiscal issues. As ISIS gets destroyed they will try to wage war in Europe thru more terror attacks. You do not want to invest in Europe. The world is rapidly shifting right and the changes will be generational. Brussels will be neutered. NATO countries will invest much more in defense and will be forced to build up their armies.

Here is what I believe will happen in the US. Trump has two years to make massive changes and this is what I believe they may be. Obamacare is replaced with some type of more free market plan that Ryan already has. Corporate taxes will be reduced to maybe 15% or maybe a bit higher. Personal taxes will be reduced. All executive orders by Obama will be reversed. Most of the massive regulation Obama put in place will be cancelled. The Supreme Court will get a conservative justice right away and Ginsburg will try to hang on until she dies in office to try to deny him her seat. She will not last 4 years. Trump will get at least 2 and maybe 3 judge picks. The Supreme court will decide by what strict constructionists think the constitution says not the left wing politics of Sotomayor. It will be much more pro-business. Antitrust cases will go away. Sanctuary cities will lose funding and San Francisco, Berkeley and Boulder will go nuts. The border will somehow be secured and Mexico will not pay. Border Patrol will be materially increased. Gang members will be arrested and deported but everyone else will get to stay here. Ryan will stay as Speaker. Trump will do what any good NY real estate guy does, he will get up from the table until he gets a deal close to what he wants.

That is key to a lot of what Trump will be able to do. If you listened carefully to what he said, it was I will redo NAFTA and will walk from the table if I do not get what we need.

There will be a revised NAFTA but Mexico will suffer a lot because many US companies will not move plants there until they see what revised NAFTA says. They will also not defy Trump early on and risk his wrath. Mexico takes a big hit. The Pentagon and US defense contractors are big winners. Defense spending will ramp up by huge numbers. The military will add over 200,000 people over the next two years. Weapons spend will dramatically increase. This will add a lot of new jobs between the additional military and the added jobs in defense plants. Private equity will take a big hit with carried interest going away and this will make a small part payment for the tax cuts. Estate taxes will mostly go away. Cops will be respected again And racial strife will end as Trump tries new ideas to build charter schools, and rebuild the ghettos. There will be no more honoring the families of the thugs like Brown and Travon the way Obama and Hilary did. He will honor the cops. The downtrend in crime will get reinstated. Transgender anything will go away.

The military will be told to go win wars and not be social experiments with transgender soldiers. Rules of engagement will be changed to kill the enemy instead of cater to political correctness. There will be an infusion of another 5,000 US soldiers into Iraq and more into Syria to back up the destruction of ISIS. The bombing campaign will be stepped up to what it should be. By March ISIS will have been defeated. They will try to carry out major terror attacks, but now the world will call Islamic terror what it is and there will be a more aggressive fight and coordination. Putin and Trump are from the same mother and will get along. Putin is like all bullies – he will realize he cannot push Trump around like he does Obama and he will work out a modus vivendi because he knows he has at least 4 more years to deal with a new US president. Bullies back off if they find they cannot intimidate the other guy. The Iran nuke deal will get torn up and Iran will find itself back under sanctions. The Germans will scream but Merkel is now in a very weak position so she will not be able to stop Trump from re-imposing them at least for US companies and anyone wanting to do business in the US especially banks. This will be world changing. The Saudis won big on this, Israel won huge. Developers win because the EPA will be defanged. Climate change legislation is dead and the Paris pact will be defunct.

College campuses will no longer have the threat that unless they find a bunch of young guys to charge with sexual whatever they lose funds. PC on college campuses will be pressured to end although for quite a while there will be protests and other such things. Today professors are telling students they do not have to take exams because they are so upset. Give me a f-ing break. This is exactly what is wrong with American colleges today. It is just telling kids boo hoo if you feel bad you get excused from work.

I still think Trump is nuts and a really terrible person, but he is president now so we need to deal with reality of what next. Paul Ryan has already reached out to heal the rift and they have already planned a quick special session to pass repeal of Obamacare and undo the regulations and do other things quickly. Ryan will remain as speaker. The SCOTUS vacancy will be filled immediately.

Most important the entire world is about to change. We will see if for good or bad but change it will in massive ways. The tide of anti-socialist, anti PC, anti-diversity, anti-entitlement, anti-establishment of the past 70 years is washing across the world and Trump is simply the ultimate example of what had already been happening with Brexit and in Europe. As far as the stock market- it will now rise. Taxes will get cut, the Supreme Court will not be activist, anti-trust will end, some type of infrastructure program will be instituted, defense spending will jump, banks will be free to lend, regulations will be drastically reduced, and corporate profits will rise.

Go all in now. You already see the market reaction is up after the shock. Wall Street elite misplaced their bets, Hollywood and the press way over played their hands, and college professors and administrators will have to get over it.

I started Ross Rant in late 2007 when I told a tiny group of friends the market was going to crash and nobody believed me. I sold out of the market in May 2007. My broker thought I was nuts. In January 2008 I told people at the big hotel conference that the hotel industry was going to crash in 2008. They told me I was stupid. I began emailing my little group of friends with these kind of thoughts and so the Rant was launched. They encouraged me to expand that, and so began the Rant. In August 2008 I told a few friends driving to a golf outing that Lehman would go bankrupt, and nobody believed me. So now I said Trump and the Republicans would win, and few believed me. In fact, one of my good friends of 50 years bet me $100. So how did I do that. Not smarts. I have no data base. Difference is, I spend a lot of time observing trends and traveling, and talking to real people on the ground all across the country at all walks of life. I do not read the NY Times nor do I watch NBC or CBS or CNN. I talk to lots of real people who are doing whatever they do day to day and try to glean tidbits and connect the dots. Any of you can do the same and probably better than me. I just try to disconnect myself from what the talking heads are saying, and the latest fad of political thinking, and try to see it from a distance with some objectivity.

To my Democrat friends, suck it up – the world just changed dramatically – we will see if for better or worse.

Joel Ross

Now that you’ve read and enjoyed Ross’s solid analysis, sit back and read Mark Morford’s hysterical rant about the death of America under President Donald Trump. Here’s just a sample. After opening with the assurance that the earth is dying “because humans,” Morford knows where blame really belongs:

Kids? Oh, we have plenty of those. There are, of course, many, many more babies swarming over the planet than we have healthy capacity to feed and water and sustain, on ongoing and sort of disastrous procreative commandment driven largely by the efforts of heavily Catholic and/or violently patriarchal cultural posturing, because of course babies are God’s little angels and the Lord will provide and birth control is for heathens, and who cares about all the starvation and water shortages and poverty and vicious wars over dwindling resources?

But really, why worry? The incoming Trump administration is already working hard to assure a quick and bilious doom for all. The scowling orange monster has assembled the most laughably grotesque team of the most cold-blooded demolition experts in American political history – nearly all of them rich white males with the moral compass of flesh-eating bacteria and each hell bent on undoing Obama’s legacy and/or annihilating some indispensable hunk of the U.S. government, like the Department of Energy, or NASA, or the Department of the Interior, or Treasury, or nature, science, fundamental empathy.

So, again, if you want a good laugh, read the whole thing. But honestly, if you’re ever in San Francisco and find yourself introduced to a guy named Mark Morford, I wouldn’t admit to being either a conservative or a Trump supporter unless your self-defense skills are good. This guy is wound so tightly he strikes me as a human bomb waiting to explode.

I loved the first rant and hope he is 100% correct. Nostradamus predicted a blue turbine would rise in the east and the bear and the eagle would partner to put it down. (paraphrased but that is the jist of it.)

Wolf Howling

I agree with virtually every word of the first analysis. Hell, in other forums, I’ve written the exact same — even right down to use of continued participation in the US banking system as leverage. That said, the only thing he gets wrong is that CNN will change out personnel. The CNN types do not see themselves as “discredited,” just as misunderstood by their intellectual inferiors. As to Mr. Morford, he is the caricature of a hard prog. gay man operating on pure emotion. I doubt if he could find an audience much outside of SF. And even with that, he really needs to cut down on the poppers.

Wizbang_FL

I read to the point where you talked about France and Germany going through social turmoil and Isis being destroyed in the next sentence. It seems obvious you really have no idea how Isis got it foot-hold in so many areas in the first place. Social upheaval and turmoil and religious fanaticism. In the real Muslim world of those who read and practice the Koran they believe in peace. These same people become radicalized when they believe their religion is being taken from them. The “conservative right” coming into power in the Germany, France, etc. is just what is called for if you want Isis to spread in Europe. That is what happened when George W was in power, Muslim faith became concerned about the push to make everyone “Christian” (or as they perceived it, with laws being passed and policies the US implemented with regard to foreign countries) The more militant and radical had already seen the first Bush attack middle eastern countries. They saw the election being given to someone who lost the popular vote who was not respectful of their faith. Now I see the same set of circumstances happening again. An election going to a president who lost the popular vote but won the election, who doesn’t respect them or any non Xtian faith. Really who doesn’t respect anyone who isn’t a white Anglo-Saxon. I hope I’m wrong, but as it goes now Trump has done everything I thought he would and one of the things I think he will end up doing is pissing a group of foreign leaders (religious or otherwise) and starting world war 3 because he doesn’t have a filter. Even though you may like that about him, he’ll be the cause of a lot of loss of life, loss of jobs, and loss of stability of our country by his arrogance. Much the way GW did which is when I left the republican party and became independent.

Danny Lemieux

I especially love this part…”In the real Muslim world of those who read and practice the Koran they believe in peace.” I think that’s a mis-translation: it should say “pieces”. Note to Wizbang_FL, ISLAM has NEVER lived in peace with other faiths unless those faiths were subjected under the sword. They can’t even get along with one another. It isn’t just the West and George Bush that have been fighting with Islam, it is Arab Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Confucians, Animists, Secularists and just about every other religious and non-religious denomination around the world. Oh, and put a cliff note reminder on your fridge: GW Bush is not President anymore and hasn’t been for 8 years now. Time to move on.

There was also something in there about Bush II being “awarded the Presidency.” Whaaaaat? The Supreme Court ruled, seven to two, that the recounts could continue in Florida, but only if they did them statewide, not just in four heavily Democrat counties. Mysteriously, the recount mania subsided. The usual guess is that there was no way to create more votes for Gore, if they had to count in full public view, but that’s just me, and several million others. I was a Democrat up to that time, and it was quite a shock to me, that the party I had trusted would engage in skulduggery. Nevertheless, there it is.

Kevin Pearson

NO. It was five to four, That is why the media vilified Anthony Kennedy and for that reason he bailed and went left on the Texas sodomy law, McCain Feingold and other liberal cases.

John Browne

How do you feel about Trump’s current attempt to placate the Xtian Fundameltalist/Dominionist right, by cancelling and banning travel to people who otherwise have legal (and Moral) recourse to the USA? If one WANTED to provoke people to become radicalized (in a Bad way) against the USA, he couldn’t have done it more easily.
Trump is still pitching to his “base”… and this policy is more than likely emanating from a Pence/Bannon “situation closet”. It certainly has awakened a number of folks, though… including many of the ‘complacent’ Left. ^..^

MacG

It is the only Religion that if you were to remove it and its adherents from the contemporary battlefield we would have one or two wars left and nearly have peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.

blick

The reality is there are no muslim radical terrorists. There are devout true-believer muslims who take at face-value the koran’s injunctions to murder, to lie, to mutilate, to deceive, to practice terror, to practice bestiality and pedophilia, etc. Luke warm muslims hesitate at these commands but that hesitation does not make them moderates. The lukewarm are just not yet devout.
The “peaceful” muslim majority is irrelevant to the political discussions, terrorism discussions, as the Radical islamists are driving the agenda. Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Mao’s China, WWII Japan, Pol pot Cambodia all had “peaceful” majorities but the minority drove the agenda that killed by the millions. I put “peaceful” in quotes because many of those who do not take action, many are sympathizers and supporters. Many more muslims support the establishment of sharia law where they live. They do not wish to assimilate into the country where they live. “Peaceful” is a slippery word and un-useful in describing the muslim agenda which ranges from suicide bombs, terror attacks, to threats of violence, to sending support, to agitating for cultural changes, to silently resisting the culture, to assimilation. muslim loyalty to the country they live in, is always suspect.

John Browne

Apparently “Breitbart” has your mind in a hammer-lock… but don’t let ignorance of Islam slow you down! Your closing sentence could have been written 100years ago about the Irish… or the “Eyetalians”. (Don’t give up, though. There will be BONUSES in store for Your type of “treue believer”!) ^..^

blick

Nope, I am not a fan of Breitbart. My thoughts are my thoughts. I study and learn from many sources. You obviously did not read what I wrote to understand and consider, but just reacted from your own prejudice.

John Browne

I wouldn’t bother to react if I HAD NOT read- and considered- what you had written. Your assessment of me is a lot like your assessment of the MOTIVES of Islam– a culture of which you apparently have no comprehension. (But, sometimes APPREHENSION will serve, if that’s all the ‘hension’ you can come up with…) ^..^

blick

John, enlighten me on islam. How is it peaceful? How is it charitable? How is it inclusive? Tell me about Allah? Tell me all the good things it has done in the world? Tell me how un-prejudiced islam is? Provide me with data, anecdotes, and statistics to demonstrate me wrong. You do not refute my assumptions but just call me ignorant — enlighten me.

John Browne

Well, Islam is a lot like… Christianity. There are different sects that despise one another (think Protestant vs Catholic, in Ireland), there are smaller divisions, too… like real fundamental branches (like the Evangelicals ) who interpret ‘scripture’ literally *Wahhabis, Salafists, etc) & very modern- almost secular- believers. They look after their own (think of the Catholic Charities, World Vision, etc)… maybe the best thing that ANY religions do… with schools, hospitals, elder care, aiding the poor (actually Hamas in Palestine and Hizbollah in Lebanon are both strong charity organizations in their communities) and disabled. That’s the GOOD thing about almost every religion… Jews Hindus, Mormons, Yezidi, Shinto, etc
The most troubling things to me are that they all feel a need to proselytize, and to demonize Other faiths, to some degree. But Arab culture is at the heart of Islam, and it’s rather mysterious to Westerners. (And there’s a lot of “history” of conflict… and in my own judgment, the Muslims have been far more forgiving of the past events than the Christians have been.)
In Islam, Jesus is a great prophet. In Christianity, Mohammed is an outlaw. But what you have to remember is that the ROMAN EMPIRE co-opted Christianity in around 200 AD… and they fought with the Arabs (and other Muslims) for the next 1000 years. Muslims, perhaps because of where they started, are far less “race-conscious” than Christians… and were generally quite accepting of Christians (and Jews) in their midst. As one travels east, away from Arab cultures, Islam has been adapted to the Persians and Indians and Indonesians (some VERY different cultures!) without becoming some unrecognizable cultural artifact.
Because Arabs are still quite “tribal” (or clannish) the situations on the ground, from the perspective of Euro-Americans, is very chaotic. political loyalties shift rapidly… a great deal like Germany and Italy were like in the 1800s… remnants of feudal rule everywhere.
I’d suggest reading about various subjects in the Wikipedia, and following links when your curiosity is sparked about a word or subject. It ain’t simple… but it IS fascinating. And when you think how OUR culture has been forcibly placed against Them- in their Home territories (because of… oil) you can understand their reactions a little better, maybe. ^..^

blick

John, not a bad summary of the history and sympathetic to islam, but that does not get to today’s muslim and today’s islam. the peaceful majority has little or no say in the violent islam agenda. The radical islamic terrorist holds the agenda against the west and the jews. There is no “peaceful” voice from any muslim country leaders to counter balance the radical agenda. From libya to iran it is death to Israel and the USA, the rest are silent.

John Browne

The western media gets NO “points” for sharing any kind of conciliatory message (or opinion) from- or about- Muslims. What they get if they DARE to do that is charges that they’re “un-American”, unpatriotic, “fake news”, etc. So it would require checking foreign sources, and maybe ones not in English.
Right now, most Muslim responses to the travel/refugee ban are from people upset about it… whether they live in one of the 7 countries or not… because they see it for what it is… and are aware of the damage that it’s doing to people’s lives. There are plenty of peaceful Muslims who speak out… some clerics and some simply ordinary folks, and some government officials.
You know, the Kurds are primarily Muslims… and are working WITH us against the ISIL/ISIS forces. Pakistan has a kind of “civil war” going on, with radicals and Taliban supporters against moderate Muslims in that country. Ditto Bangladesh. The radicals get a lot of press because that’s what sells… and also curries favor with the people “in charge” in our country, at the present time. ^..^

Gassius Maximus

Sure! Trump will end up “pissing off a group of foreign leaders” who up till now have had a clear field thanks to Obozo our Clown in Chief. So frick’in what!! Nooo! I think, like most bullies, these clowns will back off and find other ways to continue their nefarious doings without getting on Trump’s radar. It won’t take a war, all it takes is a threat to their “money.” It’s always about money. Barry let them run open field and now that there is a new sheriff in town, the bad actors are hiding behind their rocks. It will take time to rebuild our military (Thanks for nothing Barry!) but in the meantime we can make surgical strikes. I am damn sure we have information but Barry didn’t want to use it because he didn’t want to harm is fellow Mooslums.

And I take offense at your using “X” where “Christ” should be in the word Christian or Christmas. Jerk-off!

Yeah, yeah, I know. You are going to say, “Well, that is mighty Christian of you to say,” but I am tired of people like you who can write pages of crap but don’t have the decency to type five (5) additional characters for a proper name.

blick

Whizbang FL, If you are going to find the historical roots of islam being offended by the west you must start at the beginning — 700 AD with the founding of islam. How did the West offend Mohamed? and his band of merry men? If I read the story right, mohamed’s neighbors did not like his politics and chased him out of the city. He plotted his return and with violence conquered his former city and killed his former neighbors. muslims have had a violent history with their neighbors to this day. President Bush had nothing to do with offending muslims. muslins take offense at anything and everything that does not line up with the koran. and they respond with violence not peace.

David Foster

“The Saudis won big on this”…not so sure of that: increased US oil production is not in their economic interest.

Well well. That looks like a pretty good imitation of the Mooslum posture; you know, ass and souls of feet pointed to the west while head it pointed at Mecca. Yeah, I guess in SF they would call that stuff he puts out “writing.”

Jose

Trump may be unpleasant and distasteful to most of us, but he is aggressive and confident. And we see where passivity has gotten us.

I agree that Trump will find common ground with Putin, as he will refuse to be Putin’s patsy.

And I think the Chinese will soon stop casually stealing our military assets in front of our faces. The ship that stole that underwater drone should have been confronted, and if they didn’t surrender the drone, should have been sunk.

Rick

This is good. Great.

All businessmen are mad, corrupt, evil, bad. Unless, of course, they are making you money. And real estate is a nasty business. Of course Trump was at his worst when bankrupt. Of course.

But Ross gives Clear – eyed assessment. Good for him.

Scott Harrison

Has anyone here lived under fascism? Apparently not. But hey, keep up the rah rah and brouhaha lads – just remember that one day you yourselves may be on the receiving end of the diminishment of civil liberties – and there may be nobody courageous enough left to speak up on your behalf. Authoritarian regimes alway start out appealing to national pride, othering and playing on our fears.

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